Shakin' the Family Tree

A never ending journey...

Dec. 13th, 2010

Dec. 13th, 2010

Funeral processions in those places are not often accompanied by police escorts on motorcycles, zipping to the intersection in advance to allow the procession to cross unimpeded.

They aren't needed. Everyone gives way to a funeral procession, pulling as far off the road as necessary to allow all the cars to pass. We even do that in the "big" cities - at least, most of us do. The ones of us who can remember our manners.

Maybe that's just a Southern thing. I don't know.

What I do know is that I was taught from the time I was a little bitty girl that when someone takes that last ride, you show respect.

My grandfather, George W Burris, Jr., always wanted to be buried in St Joe Cemetery in Pope County, AR. That was "back home" for him.

My grandmother, on the other hand, argued that they should be buried in Arkadelphia, in Clark County, where they had raised their family, and where they both still lived.

Granddaddy always told her she better hope he went first - otherwise she would be planted in the country in Pope County. Since he was 18 years her senior, it was a pretty safe bet where they would be buried.

They share a double gravestone in Rose Hill Cemetery in Arkadelphia. But last summer, my dad and step-mom decided to honor Granddaddy's wish and memorialize him in St Joe Cemetery, close to his beginnings near Isabelle Creek in Pope Co., AR.